Analyst Says Wii U Will Most Likely Have Limited Third-Party Support

Industry Gamers reports that Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter has told them that Nintendo’s Wii U console will most likely have “limited” third-party support at launch. According to Pachter, Nintendo is “living in the past”, and because of their past successes with their own proprietary hardware, they think that the Wii U will be just as successful, and that it will have no problem in attracting third-party developers to make games for it. Wedbush is not so sure that developers will be flocking to make games for the Wii U, saying that Nintendo has tried to be too “different” with its tablet controller, making things unnecessarily complicated for developers, who are confused as to whether the Wii U will support just one or multiple controllers. And why would limited third-party support be a problem for Nintendo? Won’t they have enough killer games of their own based around such beloved proprietary characters as Mario, Link and Samus to ensure that they manage to sell enough Wii Us? Wedbush thinks not, saying that not having enough third-party games could affect hardware sales. And the solution? Wedbush suggests that Nintendo turns its attention to “digital downloads, a user-friendly online interface and multiplayer gaming.”